THE HORROR: The REAL TS3 Scoop As It Unfolds

[farmersimmer]

That's another thing I just don't get.  With the glutinous success the Sims franchise has had, there should be more clones.  I know of the crappy attempts at clones so far, but no one really goes much further than that. You'd think Blizzard would give it a go in a more extreme way with all the cashola they have.  Or maybe Sony (eek). 

After Sims 3 is released and many see what EA has done', no one will attempt to clone it, there won't be a sims 4.

[snowluv]

That's another thing I just don't get.  With the glutinous success the Sims franchise has had, there should be more clones.  I know of the crappy attempts at clones so far, but no one really goes much further than that. You'd think Blizzard would give it a go in a more extreme way with all the cashola they have.  Or maybe Sony (eek).  

After Sims 3 is released and many see what EA has done', no one will attempt to clone it, there won't be a sims 4.

One can only hope that EPs will help boost The Sims 3 the same way EPs rounded out the base game with The Sims 2.  Personally, I would love to see one of the other game companies give EA some well-deserved competition.  Maybe that would slap the smug smiles from their faces , and make them realize we fans are a fickle bunch when it comes to being taken for granted. At the moment, they have no competition in the Sims Franchise.  History has pointed out that monopolies in any form do not have long life spans.  Dictators usually end up dead or imprisoned.  Anyone else here have a want  to remove the doors at EA's Redwood Studios and watch as the developers suffer a bit for making our Sims suffer lives of pudding faces and scavanger hunts?

I hope El Presidente can unleash his Awesomeness and give us the game we really wanted with some well-placed mods and annoyance killers.

[Netich]

Is there any way to disable the intro movies?. Not just they are a waste of time, but also put GPU at 100%. Ive searched the .ini but there isnt nothing about it.

[Skye]

This is really funny, to read through all the borked stuff in this game. 

Remember the movie 'the Stepford Wives'--the Old version?  This sounds just like that!! LOL

[timelycorruption]

That's another thing I just don't get.  With the glutinous success the Sims franchise has had, there should be more clones.  I know of the crappy attempts at clones so far, but no one really goes much further than that. You'd think Blizzard would give it a go in a more extreme way with all the cashola they have.  Or maybe Sony (eek).  

After Sims 3 is released and many see what EA has done', no one will attempt to clone it, there won't be a sims 4.

I hate that EA has good ideas, yet unfailingly executes them horribly. It makes me want to bang my head off a wall.

[Zazazu]

Is it just me or are the lots just way too big?  What the hell kind of house am I going to build on a 40x40 lot? 
I guess I'll just try to stick with 20X30 and 30X40. 

It's not just you. In TS2, it was rare for me to go over a 2x2 lot. In TS3, that's not even possible. And we can't move them. This static neighborhood is probably third on my list for annoyances:

1. Story Progression is nothing but a shiny button.
2. Routing. Oh, my goodness, the route fail.
3. Having the same 'hood as everyone else insults my sense of individuality.
4. Sim skin flatness/lighting issues.

Pretty much everything else has ceased to annoy me or I've grown to like.

[Inge]

Ah... so we're pretty much stuck with suburban living again, after all the strides we made with town houses in Sims 2.

[Marhis]

There still are some other things that annoys me to no end, aka are the exact culprit that makes me bored after a while:

1) "Dude thinks that XXX is very alluring" --> XXX does something else, like turning off the stereo ---> XXX has to start over again the flirting from the very beginning.

2) Extreme slowness of any action; useless and unexplainable pauses. It's a lot worse than in both TS1 and TS2. It can't take a full hour of sim time to greet a guy at the door, when you're already near; it can't take 1 sim hour from when you gave the command of "blow up out candles" to when the sim finally does it!

[lemmiwinks]

2) Extreme slowness of any action; useless and unexplainable pauses. It's a lot worse than in both TS1 and TS2. It can't take a full hour of sim time to greet a guy at the door, when you're already near; it can't take 1 sim hour from when you gave the command of "blow up candles" to when the sim finally does it!

Your Sims blow stuff up? I want your game!   

[daisywenham]

There still are some other things that annoys me to no end, aka are the exact culprit that makes me bored after a while:

1) "Dude thinks that XXX is very alluring" --> XXX does something else, like turning off the stereo ---> XXX has to start over again the flirting from the very beginning.

2) Extreme slowness of any action; useless and unexplainable pauses. It's a lot worse than in both TS1 and TS2. It can't take a full hour of sim time to greet a guy at the door, when you're already near; it can't take 1 sim hour from when you gave the command of "blow up candles" to when the sim finally does it!

Dear god toddler/baby birthdays!  Every sim in the house drops what's in their queue to go watch it and then stands there blowing horns and cheering for bloody EONS, while the toddler/baby just sits there.

Oh yeah and pathing..  It doesn't crop up enough to be really annoying for me but I've had situations where 3 sims with plenty of room to walk all try to use the same damn tiles. Then, instead of rerouting, they just decide the best course of action is to a) take turns and b) wait 1/2 hour after the way is clear before moving.  RAR!

[Marhis]

Your Sims blow stuff up? I want your game!   

LOL I guess it's a freudian slip relict from when I promised to blow up the head of the next guy who would type your instead of you're.

[Soggy Fox]

Maybe some of the fans should give it a go - do a write-up and contact Blizzard [or another company that has decent customer service] and code a sim-type game that is good.  I don't mind shelling out money for something that I like and that isn't designed to screw me over.

Heck, I'd love to see sims 2 as a real MMO, not like the Sims Online debacle.  Or maybe like the Neverwinter Nights game - online play and offline play.  That would be awesome.  I'd do it, but I'm not much of a coder.

[cyperangel]

Normally I lurk a lot, read a lot, and try not to post a lot, as english is my secondary language, and I am scared of the grammar police. But, I have a question and I am hankering for an answer, so here goes:

Do anyone know what fertilization of the plants you can grow actually do? As I understand it, quality is based on what you plant, (The seed's quality +1 = the plant's quality) and thus fertilization with rare fish or plants, means nothing. So I am wondering if anyone have found a secret about it that I am missing.

*Runs for cover again.*

[sanmonroe]

That's another thing I just don't get.  With the glutinous success the Sims franchise has had, there should be more clones.  I know of the crappy attempts at clones so far, but no one really goes much further than that. You'd think Blizzard would give it a go in a more extreme way with all the cashola they have.  Or maybe Sony (eek).  

After Sims 3 is released and many see what EA has done', no one will attempt to clone it, there won't be a sims 4.

One can only hope that EPs will help boost The Sims 3 the same way EPs rounded out the base game with The Sims 2.  Personally, I would love to see one of the other game companies give EA some well-deserved competition.  Maybe that would slap the smug smiles from their faces , and make them realize we fans are a fickle bunch when it comes to being taken for granted. At the moment, they have no competition in the Sims Franchise.  History has pointed out that monopolies in any form do not have long life spans.  Dictators usually end up dead or imprisoned.  Anyone else here have a want  to remove the doors at EA's Redwood Studios and watch as the developers suffer a bit for making our Sims suffer lives of pudding faces and scavanger hunts?

I hope El Presidente can unleash his Awesomeness and give us the game we really wanted with some well-placed mods and annoyance killers.

[Zucabr]

Also, please don't double post.

Anyway, does anyone know how to complete Guitar Star in the Guitar skill challenges? It says you need to play in 10 parties/venues to earn it. What exactly constitutes a 'venue'?

[vagabondher]

Also, please don't double post.

Anyway, does anyone know how to complete Guitar Star in the Guitar skill challenges? It says you need to play in 10 parties/venues to earn it. What exactly constitutes a 'venue'?

I was wondering that as well. Playing a show at the theater, perhaps playing at parties? I'm currently just trying to skill my Sim up to level ten before getting to the challenges, but once I get there I'll let you know (or not, because I'm sure someone else already has the answer).

[Peel]

Skilling seems like more of a grind in TS3, which is strange, as I thought it was grindy in TS2, but it has somehow been made WORSE. Maybe it's because the game puts so much emphasis on A!CHIEVE!MENT!

I find that the time speed ups move very slowly in game and observing a Sim doing most of their skilling at less than high speed is rather tedious.  All though not as tedious as watching them sleep at speeds 3 or 4. I don't know if it is my rather outdated video card or what but there is very little difference between 1 and 4, the only thing that seems to speed up are the sounds. I do like that Sims can skill at their job but following any Sims to their job, even a rabbit-hole job, was never on my must have features list. From playing this game I can see where they were trying to go but imo they never really got there. I never played "Sims Stories" or whatever they called that one but I did play "Busting Out" and it really reminds me of that console game. It is also reminiscent of that German game "Singles" that came out years ago for some odd reason.

I really like the customization tool and some of the interactions. I had a Sim sleeping and when a burglar was about to come into the house their neighbour who must of been outside at the time and had a brave attribute came running over and pounded them. That was funny. As was the "peeper" who was watching my Sim sleep at night. The jiggling of the flusher on the toilets however drives me bonkers. Of course The Sims have always had some long arsed animations that drove me. I don't really like the visual direction this game took. The more realistic 3D characters look the more living dead they look and gives them that extra creepy je n'ais quoi. In other games it is not really as noticeable as when a game is a life simulator and the more realistic characters are living in a cartoonish looking world. I found that the Sims 2 characters had a good balance of realism and toonish that they didn't have that yikes factor I find in this game, facial features aside.  

I dled the torrent after I read about all the changes that they had made to the game and I am glad that I did as I saved myself both cash and disappointment on release date. Unless future expansions add different types of game play I won't be purchasing the 3 franchise. The base game is not designed for the type of player I am of The Sims games. Like "Busting Out" is a game with an over all goal that once achieved I never picked up again.

[TashaYarrr]

As bored as I used to get of the 'special event' cutscenes, I now realize how much they brought to TS2, and I miss them. One of many reasons these Sims feel more robotic and way less organic.

[EdenNintyNine]

As bored as I used to get of the 'special event' cutscenes, I now realize how much they brought to TS2, and I miss them. One of many reasons these Sims feel more robotic and way less organic.

I feel the exact same way; I kind of enjoyed getting those cut scenes, now that I think about it. With TS3 I keep trying to get them too, hoping that maybe my sim just did not have enough in common with one sim or maybe my sim was not attracted to the other sim. I did not realize however, that they- the cut scenes- had been removed; I am a bit disappointed now… the little dingle of music on ‘first kiss' interaction is hardly equivalent in terms of dynamic and dramatic sensation.

[vagabondher]

As bored as I used to get of the 'special event' cutscenes, I now realize how much they brought to TS2, and I miss them. One of many reasons these Sims feel more robotic and way less organic.

I grew tired of the Woo Hoo cut scene whenever it was your first time, but I do miss all the fireworks and cute baby-twirling-in-the-air when you give birth. I mean, in theory, I like that my pregnant Sim can go to the hospital when she's in labor, but I wish when she actually gave birth it would cut inside to the room and show her holding the baby or something. Just a standard little cut scene would do.

[Zaphod Beeblebrox]

Normally I lurk a lot, read a lot, and try not to post a lot, as english is my secondary language, and I am scared of the grammar police. But, I have a question and I am hankering for an answer, so here goes:

Do anyone know what fertilization of the plants you can grow actually do? As I understand it, quality is based on what you plant, (The seed's quality +1 = the plant's quality) and thus fertilization with rare fish or plants, means nothing. So I am wondering if anyone have found a secret about it that I am missing.

*Runs for cover again.*

I haven't harvested much as of yet, but I did notice that using anchovies as fertilizer for my apple trees gave me "very nice quality" apples.  Still trying to figure out what fertilizer with what plant gives you, uh, what in return.

[Charamei]

I don't understand why the traits system had to replace the personality system.

Was willing to give it the benefit of the doubt before, but having played the game for a few hours, I really don't get it. There's very little in the two systems that contradicts; the few traits that do (such as hyper-neatness) could have easily been removed. And conflating the two systems would produce far more interesting, diverse Sims than having both separately.

As for the actual gameplay, I'm fed up of my One Fambly already. In theory this game should have been perfect for me - I'm a storyteller, but over the whole neighbourhood, with events causing knock-on effects, etc. In practice, it's tedious and restrictive, and 'the whole neighbourhood' may just as well be 'those two Sims'. Way to go, EA.

[Lurker]

Maybe someone outside you/your family has to kick them over...?

Ah crap, haven't thought of that one. Good idea, 'will try. Thanks
Since i changed for a bigger house they're locked in the back yard and haven't had the newspaper boys' daily greeting. I'll move them to the front yard.

[hooptytrib]

Deal-braker #1295:  "Daredevil" sims get "extreme nap," "extreme sleep," "practice extreme speech," etc.

They do not get "extreme woo-hoo."

I call bullshit.

[timelycorruption]

As bored as I used to get of the 'special event' cutscenes, I now realize how much they brought to TS2, and I miss them. One of many reasons these Sims feel more robotic and way less organic.

I grew tired of the Woo Hoo cut scene whenever it was your first time, but I do miss all the fireworks and cute baby-twirling-in-the-air when you give birth. I mean, in theory, I like that my pregnant Sim can go to the hospital when she's in labor, but I wish when she actually gave birth it would cut inside to the room and show her holding the baby or something. Just a standard little cut scene would do.

The hospital is yet another rabbit hole?

I haven't harvested much as of yet, but I did notice that using anchovies as fertilizer for my apple trees gave me "very nice quality" apples.  Still trying to figure out what fertilizer with what plant gives you, uh, what in return.

Ford Prefect > Zaphod, by the way. [/off topic]